Wind caused 12 hour power outage: air and water temperature graphs along with what was done

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Colorado had a bit of a wind event yesterday. The power up here was among the 10,900 + households that had an outage as a result of that wind. Our power was lost from 11am until 10pm. BLUF it is interesting to see what occurs in a power outage and how 

I did not have the air pump I use, a 9 watt 6 LPM on any kind of battery back up, uninterrupted power supply, etc for the duration of this event. I also heat a few tanks the puffers vs the room since many of the species I am working on are cool water. 

This sensor is the top level of the cool water rack (unheated) it is the water temperature of a 26"x18"x9" polycarbonate tank with tight cover made from a restaurant supply commercial vegetable / soup storage container. It is located within the same room as the furnace and fish room water change sink. The temperature gradient is pretty smooth compared to the next chart. I attribute this to the furnace and its ductwork controlling the temperature of the room as it heats the ductwork. On Wednesday 12/15 the room temperature increased slightly after the power loss. The furnace was likely on prior to the loss in power and the ducts heated the room from 62.87° to 63.57° where it remained from noon to 6:01pm. The tank water temperature dropped down to 61.95° at midnight. The difference between the power loss and the heating cycle is something I had not considered prior to reviewing this sensor. The air, including the box filter, was off from 11am until 10 pm. For the duration of the outage I did not have a space blanket on this tank. No losses observed. I assume each tank in the room was similar temperature gradient. This rack contains Taiwanese Dragon Micro Goby  (Schismatogobius ampluvinculus), Brazos Dwarf Mexican Crayfish (Cambarellus texanus),  Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi), and Characodon audax "El Toboso" Black Prince Livebearer. No one really needs too much heat in that group

 

By comparison the below chart is for the same event for the Pao cf. palustris fry tank a 20 gallon acrylic tank, a box filter and heavy plantings of duckweed, frogbit, Brazilian Pennywort, java moss, and subwassertang. They have a 200 watt heater attached to an inkbird controller with a 1 degree variation and a set temperature of 77°. Tanks is covered and a spaceblanket was put over the top of the tank when the power cut off.

The power went out on a downcycle at 11am 76.55° where it steadily dropped to 74.21° at 3:01pm. The power briefly kicked back on and the temperature blipped back up to 74.57° before dropping down to 70.79° at 10:01pm.  The heater brought the temperature up 7 ° over 60 minutes. It recovered to 77.74° at 1am.  That drop was fairly concerning and I will probably have some portable powerstation option moving forward and maybe try to do an airpump in a cooler with heatpacks to keep the airtemperature up a bit and maybe retain heat in the tanks through the use of warmed air. 

 

This chart is the air temperature in the fish room where the 20 gallon tank and most of the heated tanks are located. During the outage the air temperature drop and the water temperature drop were a fairly similar pattern. The air dropped about 9° while the water dropped 7° all the acrylic tanks were similar temperatures based of the heater displays. 

 

Interesting to see the tracks of the temperatures for this event. To this point there have been no issues with the water quality or the health of the fish. Everyone has been active and eating. I may have lucked out with this one; perhaps the stressor of the temperature was survivable with the good food and water they normally live in.1 stressor and not many stressors. Has anyone every tried to flatten that temperature drop line a bit?  What has worked best for you? I'm sure in nature the swings are bigger than that 9° and 7° but at a minimum i would probably have the air going next time.

[Guppysnail]

I’m not scientific so never tracked temps like this. The most I’ve done is wrap a blanket about the tank with battery air supply and sponge filters. I also had a propane heater used in the next room that kept the temp from dropping in the house too bad. On a cool day if it rains the temps in the water would drop much quicker and swing more drastically as you have mentioned. If that is the only stressor I doubt it was much stress at all. I’m of the belief that fish kept in optimal water and fed an optimal diet are very hardy and fish in general are adaptable. Awesome log work. Hats off to you. 

[KittenFishMom]

THIS IS ONLY FOR LIVE AND DEAD SITUATIONS !

If you find that your oxygen supply to your tank failed awhile ago (power out or otherwise) and your fish are showing clear signs of stress(like floating and some are dead), a trick that can up the oxygen quickly is a bit of peroxide. This is dangerous. Don't do it unless the fish are showing clear signs of stress.  You must be very calm and careful because too much peroxide will act like bleach and kill your fish and plant and bacteria and everything. Peroxide breaks down to O2 and water, so this does not require an immediate water change but stressed fish release stress hormones into the water, so I would do a water change after things have calmed down.

Take out some tank water and stir in a little peroxide and then stir the water back in and wait to see if it was enough to help. While you are waiting, setup your battery operated air pump. If you don't see improvement, take out more water and dilute a little peroxide again and wait again.

I have done this with minnows while fishing on hot days, and have seen fish go from floating to swimming. I don't know if there is any formulas for how much peroxide  to how much water, or how long to wait. There are a lot of variables, like temperature and how low the oxygen is when you start and how many fish per gallon and how much oxygen the type of fish need. This is really a last ditch effort to try to keep fish alive if they look like they are not going to make it. Also, peroxide turns into water quickly once it has been opened. I just keep a bunch sealed small bottles on hand for cuts and scraps. It is cheap, several small bottles last longer than a big bottle. I usually take a bottle in the boat when I am fishing, but I bring it back inside, I don't leave it in the boat. 

[Torrey]

I learned to keep warm tanks on upper racks, and as close together as possible. I also use bubble wrap on the backside of my acrylic and plastic tanks, and have an insulated curtain around my fish rack.

I found that using the USB power driven airstones are more than sufficient for UGF and sponge filters. I learned that glass provides more insulation than plastic or acrylic, and it's very noticeable in my nano and pico tanks....

I have a power station that I can now use for backup, but our last power outage, the house only dropped 6° over 24 hours (benefits of apartment living, only one wall is an exterior wall) and the tanks didn't even drop 5° so I didn't worry. 

[eatyourpeas]

I only have nano tanks, which provides very little margin for error and/or recovery. I just connected the nano air pumps into UPS units, have extra airline ready to go into canister filters if necessary, and the SW tank has an airline skimmer and a ACO powerhead on UPS as well. We have been losing power a lot lately, not long enough to cause damage, but we are not into the worst of Winter yet.

Blankets are at the ready for keeping the tanks warm, as our furnace will be out if we lose power. The fireplace helps, but cannot keep the house at over 55F. Water changes with warmer water are a desperate measure if the temperature dips below survivable levels.

And I am hoping we don't see the single digits we experienced a few years back. We are the worst part of the country when it comes to dealing with crazy weather, as older homes can't deal with extreme temperatures in either direction. 🙄

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

All 5 of my tanks have 2 air driven filters (even my 4.12 gallon), 1 filter in each is powered by a lithium backed air pump so if power goes out the air pumps switch to lithium power- I can even switch them to intermittent pumping so the battery lasts longer. That's not to say I wouldn't have a problem in an extended situation, but I have 1 conventional battery powered air pump that could run 2 of my tanks and options to take dead lithiums to get charged in emergency situations. It's nice to know if I'm not home they'll be ok until I am and can assess the situation.

Edited December 17, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Torrey]

On 12/16/2021 at 8:57 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I only have nano tanks, which provides very little margin for error and/or recovery. I just connected the nano air pumps into UPS units, have extra airline ready to go into canister filters if necessary, and the SW tank has an airline skimmer and a ACO powerhead on UPS as well. We have been losing power a lot lately, not long enough to cause damage, but we are not into the worst of Winter yet.

Blankets are at the ready for keeping the tanks warm, as our furnace will be out if we lose power. The fireplace helps, but cannot keep the house at over 55F. Water changes with warmer water are a desperate measure if the temperature dips below survivable levels.

And I am hoping we don't see the single digits we experienced a few years back. We are the worst part of the country when it comes to dealing with crazy weather, as older homes can't deal with extreme temperatures in either direction. 🙄

Those nano & pico tanks can plummet, quick. I hope that the power outages don't get worse. 

 

TBH, the power outages (longest one was 3 weeks, back in the winter of 2005-2006 I believe? May have been 2006-2007) in Maple Falls, with a woodstove as our source of heat regardless of electricity, have been the only time I gladly downsized my MTS, and settled for a single *large* tank so water temps and water parameters stayed fairly stable no matter what. 

Even so, we lost a RES that winter. 

[gardenman]

I have a kerosene heater for emergency use that keeps things nice and toasty should there be a long outage. I also have some small electric heaters should just my home heater fail, but I still have power. I only have one of the USB pumps, but I keep some battery packs charged up and ready to go and I just shuffle the nano pump from tank to tank for a few minutes at a time.